Captain of the Guards -A Shawshank Redemption Fic (Updated Version)
by MBRenfro
Summary: The story of Byron Hadley and his wife, Abby, as told through the eyes of a Shawshank Prisoner.


Note: This is a revised version of this story, which I originally posted a gajillion years ago. There isn't a ton of new or different things in this story, after re-reading it I was still satisfied with most of the story, however, I wanted to change the ending a bit. It was a bit hoaky that Byron tunneled out of Andy's old cell and ran off to Mexico with Red and Andy and Abby... I'm a sucker for a happy ending, sue me. So I revised it, and am now posting it. Hope you enjoy! :)

* I do not own the Shawshank characters in any way. I write this merely for entertainment purposes.

He was a tall, dark, frightening thing of a man. He had a stare that came out of his unusually soft blue eyes that could make even the toughest criminals piss in their pants. One look from him sent murderers and rapists running for a hiding spot and callin' for their Mama's.

He had worked at Shawshank Prison half of his life. A few years shy of longer than he'd been married. His Daddy before him had held the title of Captain of the Guards at Shawshank. He'd grown up around those stone walls, it was no wonder it had become his life. It was no wonder he was so damn good at his job. He'd been around the worst criminals in the state of Maine since before he could walk. It didn't seem unusual to those that knew him that he turned out to be just as mean and heartless as the men trapped inside the walls and gates of the prison.

On the one hand you had Byron Hadley, Captain of the Guards at Shawshank Prison, and on the other you had Byron Hadley, husband and father. Don't misunderstand; the two Byron's were not separate personalities. In fact, at most times it was difficult to tell them apart. He didn't hang up the Captain Hard-Ass persona when he got home after a long day at work; he kept in on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He was hard at work, he was hard at home. He only seemed nice when he was in the presence his wife, Abby. There was something about Abby to him that softened him.

At 6'3 Byron Hadley nearly towered over 5'4 Abby. When he wanted to kiss her he either had to pick her up, get her a stool, or bend down so far it hurt his back. Byron and Abby had been married forever it seemed like. Byron was a right smart older than Abby, 10 years older in fact. They married when Byron as 26 and Abby was 16. The two had been introduced by Shawshank Warden Samuel Norton's wife, Ellen at a Halloween Party in 1935. By Christmas they were married. Abby damn near got pregnant on the honeymoon; Byron Jr. was born in September of 1936.

The Hadley's always seemed to be a very fertile bunch. By the time Old Byron landed himself inside Shawshank wearing a number instead of a uniform in 1966 for officially murdering 2, and God only knows how many more _UN_officially, he and Abby had been married 32 years and had 10 kids. Starting off with Byron Jr., they added to their bunch with Maggie, and then Billy, then Mark, Annie, Beth, Katie, Paul, Patricia and finally, the baby, Johnny. It seems like Byron couldn't get shut off when it came to getting the Mrs. in the family way. The man has spread his seed. He simply couldn't resist Abby.

When Andy Dufresne came to Shawshank in early '47, Byron had been there for 15 years. He'd started working there when he was nothing but a kid at the age of 23. In those 15 years he had made himself one of the hardest, most feared, least liked screw to ever make a turn in that prison. To this very day, even though he's now a prisoner here, he is still remembered as a real son-of-a-bitch Guard. And he is still feared, but not as someone who would beat your scull in with a nightstick for no reason... and get away with it.

It was always a treat for the prisoners, and the other guards alike, when Byron would "forget" his lunch or something along those lines. Abby would roll onto the property in the finest new car (even though Byron was a shoddy tight wad when it came to money no vehicle was too much for his Abby) in the finest new dress and make all of us guys feel like men again. She had this long dark hair that came down to her lower back. She had big blue eyes that shined in the sun like two sapphires. She had the curviest figure of any one woman I'd ever seen in my life on the outside. When Marilyn Monroe came along, a lot of the guys on the inside joked that she was fine lookin', but that Abby Hadley could give her a run for her money. Her smile looked like Heaven itself, all bright and sparkling white. When she smiled, I felt freedom again. In all of my years here at Shawshank she was the only woman I ever seen set foot inside its walls. Not even Ellen Norton would come around, and her husband ran the whole show! But Abby... nah! Hell she was married to the guy that would just as soon kill you as to shake your hand. She didn't have nothin' to worry about. Even when she was pregnant she was beautiful. I guess I might have had what you might call a crush on her. Well, hell, now that I think about it, everybody did. But if Byron ever caught you giving Mrs. Abby a once over, it was sure you'd land in either the infirmary or in the graveyard later that evening. He was a jealous man when it came to his wife... even though he sometimes treated her the way he treated us.

If Warden Norton had been any other employer and had caught Byron and Abby together he probably would have fired him. But knowing how tight the Norton's and the Hadley's were, I can't be too sure Norton wasn't in on all of Byron and Abby's "encounters." Byron and Norton were like two peas in a pod. Did everything together. Ran their schemes together. When Norton needed Tommy Williams killed because he was gonna testify to take Andy out of the money end of the evil dealings and back into the real world, it was Byron that Norton turned to to eliminate the problem. When Byron killed that Fat-Ass on Andy's first night on the block, who did he go to to make sure he didn't get thrown in the pin? Norton. It was one great big damned conspiracy, everybody coverin' everybody else's ass.

Every time a new group of inmates came in Norton always said "No blasphemy!" But he let Byron get away with whatever the hell he wanted. He could say anything and DO anything to the prisoners that he wanted. All the other guards were kept under a tight thumb. Norton controlled everything on them, even down to how many times a day they took a piss! Norton owned the place, but he let Byron run it.

It wasn't unusual for one of the prisoners to get a peek at Byron and Abby behind some of the doors in the wood shop, or back behind the washers in the laundry, or outside ducked behind a wall or most of the time it was in the movie theatre, when it was vacant, that is... Whenever she came to the prison, it was a sure thing that she and Byron would have sex SOMEWHERE on the grounds. And that would give the fellas two, maybe three days worth of gossip material. We'd watch and wait for the Hadley car to pull up in the back drive and wait for Abby to bounce out. Then we'd wait to see which door Mr. and Mrs. escaped out of, then we'd sit back and wait for the noises. Never full on out loud moaning and groaning or anything like that, but we'd listen for the sound of his belt hitting the ground and the keys jingling. It was then that we'd find good hiding place and watch the action. On the inside, you take what you get, even if it means spyin' on a man and his wife.

In the summer of 1949 when Andy Dufresne almost got himself shoved off the license plate factory roof when he asked Byron if he trusted Abby, it didn't take no damn Ph.D to figure out Byron was offended. Not two days before that Byron and Abby had had a little wing ding in the back yard. Byron knew that Andy and the rest of the gang had got an eye full so he could have taken the upper hand and shoved Andy off the roof as a warning to the rest of us. But when Andy sweet-talked his way out of it, he managed to get Byron off of that damn hardheaded pedestal of his. It was the fact that Andy had saved Byron's precious $35,000 dollars that made him have a whole new respect for the supposed wife-killing-banker. However, it didn't stop him from being a prick. Not even God himself could stop that from happening.

I remember when not long before Tommy Williams got himself shot he caught his first glimpse of The Hadley's doing the deed. I remember him telling me that he thought Abby was "one hot mama," and what he wouldn't give to get a handful of her. Reckon Byron heard that, so it's no wonder that when Norton asked Byron to kill Tommy that he said yes. It's a thousand wonders that Byron didn't kill the boy on the spot when he heard. I ain't gonna lie, I imagine ol' Byron slept like a baby that night, having done what he'd done.

The Norton's and the Hadley's did everything together. Went to church together, summer vacations, winter vacations, birthday parties, parties in general, everything. While the men did their dirty dealings, the women did what women do, whatever the hell that is. Ellen even managed to help deliver one of the Hadley children, Billy, I think it was. Byron and Abby had had it out that morning in the kitchen, Byron going on about the jam, or some kind of shit like that. He'd left the house in a huff but when he got to work he called Ellen and asked her to go sit with Abby just in case she decided to go into labor. And the just in case happened. A few hours later Ellen called the prison and told her husband to find Byron cause Abby was just on the verge of popping that kid out. Byron made it just in time. 5 minutes after he got there, William Samuel Hadley was placed in his arms. They named him, in part, after Samuel Norton, thanking Ellen for her part in bringing him into the world.

He was a good husband, and a good father, but like I've said a thousand times before, he was a complete asshole. He was considerate, gave Abby and the kids everything they'd ever wanted, but he was also _in_considerate. More times than most he would just snap when Abby would ask him to do something, or for no real reason do something for him. If she fixed a great meal, lit some candles and shoved the kids off on someone, usually Ellen, he took it as a ploy, like she was trying to impress him or something, usually he thought she was having an affair. After all she was a hot woman! She had a lot going for her.

Despite all the things Byron had against him, he was completely true to Abby the entire length of their marriage. And she was to him. Oh sure, they'd both been tempted. Byron, at one time in particular, had landed his eye on Warden Norton's niece. Abby was gone to Georgia, or one of those Southern States that she hailed from, with all the kids. Hannah, Norton's niece, had magically appeared at the Hadley's front door wearing nothing but a fur coat and a smile. They probably fumbled around for a few minutes, after all Byron was a man who had trouble controlling his emotions, which includes anger and sexual urges. Byron got mad at himself for almost cheating on Abby and pushed Hannah away. Hannah got mad at him and they argued. They yelled at each other so loud that one of the neighbors called Norton. She recognized the car. When Abby got back a week later Byron shoved the kids off on Samuel and Ellen for a few hours while he and Abby did it in every corner of that house. A month later, Abby found out she was pregnant again. Are you surprised?

I don't think I'll ever forget the time Abby rolled up in the car, and got out looking less than Rita Hayworth. She and Byron had brought the house down the night before and she ended up broken and bruised all over. She didn't stick around to have an afternoon delight with her husband; instead she went in, dropped the lunch pail on the Warden's desk and hurriedly vacated the premises. She looked like she'd been run over with a train. Her bottom lip was busted, her right eye swollen and purple all around. She had fingerprint bruises all over her arms, and God only knows what was going on underneath her dress. Byron didn't have a problem slapping anyone around, not even the person he said he loved more than anything in the world.

Don't get me wrong here with what I'm about to say. What Byron did to his wife that night was wrong. But it was a hell of a lot better than what happened one time around Christmas before Byron beat the shit out of that fag queer Boggs and his goons. Abby had come to the prison for a little Christmas party that the Warden and Mrs. Norton were throwing. All the guards and the wives were invited. Somehow one of the prisoners got out of hand and Byron and a few other guards took off to take care of the problem, and after a few minutes, almost an hour to be exact, Abby thought she'd take off to find her husband, and just as she turned a corner, Boggs grabbed her. Raped her till she was black and blue, bloody and delirious. When Byron found her she refused to tell him who did it. When Byron got her to the hospital the doctor told him that he was sorry but the baby was lost. Apparently Abby was a few months pregnant and was planning to tell Byron on Christmas morning. After Boggs and the boys had their fun with Andy, Boggs got thrown in the hole. The day he was supposed to be let out, Abby told Byron that it was him, and that only added to the reason for Byron beating the shit and then some out of that red headed fag. There were more babies for the Hadley's but no more little diddles behind the boilers for Boggs. He never walked again. The day Boggs was let out of the infirmary to go to the minimum security hospital, as he was being loaded into the ambulance transport, Byron watched him from behind like a hawk... Boggs caught his eye. Byron leaned into the ambulance and looked Boggs dead in the eye... "I've seen to it that you'll never lay your hands on my wife ever again. So help me God, you ever even so much as _think_ about my wife, I will track you down and kill you with my bare hands." Boggs started crying like a little girl and begged the guards to shut the ambulance doors. Last anyone saw of him he was snotting and carrying on worse than a bitch.

In 1966 when Andy escaped Shawshank's clutches and turned over all the money laundering documents to the government, when Norton blew his brains out and Byron was carried away in handcuffs, Abby couldn't say she was surprised that her husband was being carried away. In spite of everything he'd ever done, all the bad things at the prison and all the bad things at home, Abby loved Byron and Byron loved Abby.

The Diary of Byron Hadley, June, 1970

How the hell did this happen? Not 4 years ago I was the highest hog in the trough around here, now all of a sudden I'm here in these shitty clothes with a number on my chest! Lawyer fucked me...plain and simple. Like all those numb nuts I used to keep in line always said. You asked them what they did, the answer was always "Didn't do it...the lawyer fucked me!" Abby hired me the sorriest damn lawyer in the state of Maine. Bitch. After all the shit I did to make her and all our kids happy and comfortable...then she goes and does this to me!

I take it back... Abby is all that keeps me going here. Knowing that I'm still officially her other half, knowing she can't go off and do someone else and get away with it... makes me smile a little.

I didn't realize what a shit hole this place was until I spent my first night here inside a cell. I'd spent everyday of my life here but up until that night, I'd never spent a whole night there. Now, I'm here forever.

It's interesting though that I got that escapee wife-killing-banker's cell. That hole he dug through the wall got filled up with concrete the very next day but there's still some leeway with it. I'm thinking maybe I oughta start trying to chop through the wall. Ah hell, where would I go once I got out? Couldn't go back home. Abby wouldn't let me in the front door, or the back one for that matter. Couldn't go to the kids, they'd call the cops on me. I guess I'd just have to head for Mexico like Shit Dufresne did. Hell maybe I'll find him and stay with him. Send for Abby later, it's tough to sleep without her next to me.

I miss her. The way I'd come home at night, and she'd be in the kitchen, cooking, the way her ass looked with that apron tied just above it. The way her hair fell across those damn tits of hers. God. She was the sexiest woman I'd ever seen! What I miss the most is coming home to find the house totally deserted except for her in the kitchen, wearing the shortest, skimpiest dress she had, high heels and be waiting for me so we could bang on the kitchen floor, the living room floor, the stairs, bedroom, dining room, bathroom floor, tub...

I even miss hearing the kids yelling at each other. Miss having to break up Junior and Billy when they get in a pissing match over some girl at school.

Life here ain't tough by any means, not to me anyway. That's what you want me to say, right? Well it sure as hell ain't easy. Hell no. It is the damned hardest thing I've ever had to do. With all the bull queers running around here waiting to get their run at my ass, man can't just live. Sometimes I think that Samuel did the damn right thing blowing his brains out. Shoulda done it myself. When I saw those shitty cop cars pulling up in the yard, shoulda yanked my pistol off my hip and blew my brains all over the dirt ground right then and there. First full day inside, homos came in all around me, said it was payback time. I am still Byron Hadley, damnit, I found something, not sure what it was, a piece of pipe or something and beat the shit out of all of them. Deakons, a man that was once considered a trusted friends by me, came and got me, beat all the life out of me and threw me in the hole for a week. Son of a bitch.

Haven't talked to Abby in a while. She came a couple of months ago, I guess it was. Wouldn't let me touch her, that's very unlike her. God, all I wanted to do was duck under that table and have a go at her like I used to, but no... she wouldn't let me. I guess since Sam's dead and I'm wearing a number things are different. The new warden, Lewis Myster, piece of shit that he is, tried to tear down Andy's library, but for some shitty ass reason I found myself standing on the front lines defending it with Haywood and the other guys. Myster let us keep it. It's the only place in this prison where I feel safe anymore, ain't that a damn kick in the head?

I'm gonna become an old man in this prison. An old, tired, weak, useless man with nothing else to do but sit in his cell and pray for death. I always knew this place would be the death of me...

The End


End file.
